Systems and methods to ensure the wellbeing and safety of mobility challenged users such as wheelchair users during vehicular transport are well known. These safety procedures may be related to various steps of the transport process, such as the boarding of the wheelchair user, restraining of the wheelchair to the vehicle floor or the restraining of the wheelchair user in the vehicle.
For instance, numerous safety systems have been proposed for devices such as wheelchair lifts, used to transport the user in and out the vehicle, whereby systems include mechanical, electrical, or electromechanical sensing, or a combination thereof. WO 2 005 037 593, describes a system and method for sensing the presence of an object on a device, such as a wheelchair lift. The system makes use of an electrical field to sense whether a device is occupied or not. The electrical field is excited by electrodes coupled to surfaces of the device. The one or more electrodes are linked to an electric field imaging module that communicates with an electronic controller. The electric field imaging module operates to drive the electrodes and receive inputs therefrom by sampling the electrodes' fields for discriminating changes or disturbances to the fields due to objects therein. The one or more electrodes may be selected sequentially by the module to detect an object in various locations and/or to determine an object's size, shape, and distance from the electrodes. When an object is sensed, the controller can disable a mobility access device or vehicle function so that user injuries are prevented.
U.S. 2 006 010 477 5 describes a vehicle access system which utilizes a belt buckle with an electronic safety interlock to prevent all movement of the access system until the safety belt is fastened to the buckle. The access system will prevent the access system from operating when the safety belt is not buckled. An alarm may equally be present to alert the operator of disengagement between the buckle and the belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,789,761 discloses a control system and method for controlling the operation of an auxiliary device, such as a wheelchair lift installed in a vehicle. The control system includes an electronic controller with a microprocessor or the like that operates under software control to communicate with a vehicle's original equipment manufacturer (OEM) controller and a plurality of sensors, which may be associated with OEM and auxiliary device subsystems. The auxiliary device controller processes the sensor communications to determine the occurrence of an unsafe condition, and prevents the operation of OEM and auxiliary device subsystems relative to the sensor communications to enhance the safety of an auxiliary device user.
Although considerable effort has been made to improve the safety of a wheelchair user when boarding a vehicle, less focus has been paid to the safety procedures inside the vehicle, and during driving. Several factors may however contribute to accidents during transport, often with severe consequences. Accidents might occur for instance due to inadequate restraining of the wheelchair to the vehicle floor or not buckling up the passenger during the trip. Often these mistakes and problems occur due to the lack of familiarity of the operator with the procedure or due to lack of operator training.
The ISO norm 7176/19 is related to ‘Wheelchairs for use as seats in motor vehicles’ and describes all characteristics that a wheelchair need to comply with, when used in a vehicular transport. ISO 7176/19 does not focus on procedures to be followed to assure the safety of the wheelchair user when being transported in a vehicle as well as certify that the wheelchair user is safely restraint to its place.
US Society of Automotive Engineers guideline SAE 32249 has specified design requirements, test methods and performances requirements for Wheelchair Tiedown and Occupant Restraint Systems (WTORS). These guidelines focus mainly on the requirements for the systems and auxiliaries, such as belts and strap-type tiedowns, and not on the safety procedures to be followed to securely restrain a person to its place in a vehicle.
Therefore, there is a need for improving the safety procedures to be followed by the operator when securing the wheelchair and its user prior to driving. Such a procedure should clarify the different steps and handling in a precise and clear manner. Moreover, it is desirable to link the procedure to a safety control system, which indicates potential problems or errors when they occur. Moreover, there is equally a need to improve the passenger's wellbeing and overall feeling of security when being in a vehicle. Since a wheelchair user is mobility challenged and can be seen as rather a passive user, he has to rely entirely on the operator's knowledge of the system to ensure his safety. This might cause a feeling of insecurity, whether grounded or not, and even discomfort for the passenger. Finally, as liability issues have become more and more a concern, wheelchair transport companies are looking for solutions to hedge themselves against lawsuits and are looking for ways to maximize their reliability.
It is the aim of the current invention to improve actual safety during transport of a physically challenged passenger, such as a wheelchair user, as well as to improve the overall safety feeling of the passenger. It is furthermore an object of the current invention to improve the reliability of this type of transport.